Poland’s justice minister Adam Bodnar has asked parliament to lift the immunity of former Conservative (PiS) justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro MP, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, to allow him to be brought forcibly to face questions from a parliamentary investigative committee into the purchase and use of Pegasus spyware.
Ziobro has been refusing to appear before the committee not only because he is undergoing treatment for cancer, but also because Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal court, the composition of which is contested by Tusk’s ruling majority, has ruled that the parliamentary committee was formed illegally.
PiS has rejected any wrongdoing concerning the use of Pegasus, pointing to the fact that all instances of such use were preceded by a court order signed by a judge. It added that some of those court authorisations were made by judges who were hostile to the PiS government’s judicial reforms.
On November 22, based on a request from the Pegasus investigative committee, Bodnar submitted a motion to parliament requesting it to give consent “to detain and forcibly bring Zbigniew Ziobro to a meeting of the parliamentary Pegasus investigative committee”, thereby waiving the immunity Ziobro enjoys as an MP.
According to the motion, the committee had tried to interview Ziobro as a witness and a court had already fined the ex-minister for his four refusals to appear. Therefore, the committee said, his “unjustified failure to appear when summoned justifies the departure from the constitutional principle of the physical inviolability of an MP”. The committee has also obtained a medical opinion, challenged by Ziobro, that he was physically able to appear before the committee.
The Pegasus investigative committee was established in February this year, meant to look into a range of alleged irregularities in the use of Pegasus software during the PiS term in office. According to the committee, close to 600 people were under surveillance using the Pegasus software between 2017 and 2022, including many politicians who opposed the then-PiS government.
Ziobro and other PiS politicians have been ignoring summonses from the committee because of the constitutional court ruling that the parliamentary body should suspend its activity. The former justice minister has said that to appear before the committee would be tantamount to “legitimising illegality” and that if the committee were, in his words, properly constituted he would willingly attend its hearing.
The investigative committee has continued its work and, along with Tusk’s parliamentary majority, has argued that the court was improperly constituted and therefore had no authority to make such a ruling.
Ziobro was justice minister for the two terms of the PiS administration (2015-2023) and was responsible for piloting the judicial reforms that led to protests from Poland’s then-opposition Liberals. They also led to sanctions being imposed by the European Commission, the European Court of Justice and several condemnatory resolutions passed by the European Parliament.
In a separate development regarding Poland’s judicial system, the constitutional court, may face paralysis after the New Year as parliament has failed to elect any new judges to replace three whose terms of office are expiring. It also ruled that the Tusk government’s takeover of the public prosecution service was unconstitutional as it was carried without consent from the president.
The government is refusing to recognise the court decision as it views the current composition of the court as illegitimate. Still, the court’s ruling will likely be used by those indicted by the public prosecutors to challenge the validity of such indictments.
